Chairman of the National Development Planning Commission (NDPC), Dr. Nii Moi Thompson, has stressed the critical role of local economic development in driving sustainable national progress.

Speaking at the sidelines of the 2025 Hamburg Sustainability Conference in Germany, Dr. Thompson, who also serves as Senior Advisor to the President on the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), outlined the need for decentralised economic strategies to ensure equitable growth.

Dr. Thompson argued that Ghana’s national economy is an aggregation of local economies, and thus, development efforts must originate at the grassroots level.

"Every national development strategy must be situated within the context of local economic development, because your national economy is the aggregation of local economies," he stated.

"If you want to strengthen your national economy, you necessarily have to start from the local level."

He cautioned against over-concentration of resources in urban centers like Accra, warning that such an approach stifles broader economic progress.

"You cannot strengthen your national economy in Accra and concentrate everything in Accra… at some point, it becomes counterproductive. Accra becomes saturated. The rest of the country is deprived, but nothing moves forward."

Dr. Thompson revealed that the NDPC is already prioritising local economic development in its planning strategies.

He reiterated this commitment during the commission’s recent launch, emphasising that neglecting local economies would hinder national progress.

"Attention to local economic development is key to any development strategy that we launch. The commission is already working in that regard. And when the commission was launched last week, I made that point that we will not, as a nation, go anywhere without paying attention to local economic development."

The NDPC Chairman also criticized the current practice where contracts signed in Accra often divert resources away from poorer districts, benefiting only a few businesses in the capital.

"We're not going to go anywhere by taking monies, signing contracts in Accra to buy things for district assemblies, and then siphoning wealth and resources from some of the poorest districts in Ghana to a few businesses in Accra. It's unfair and ultimately, counterproductive."

At the conference, Dr Thompson addressed two session comprising; ‘Navigating Sustainability and International Cooperation in a Multipolar World’ and ‘A Matter of Choice: People and Possibilities in the Age of AI.”